When writing essays and dissertations, correct and consistent referencing is an important way to avoid accusations of plagiarism and ensure that people reading your work can locate the item.

The links below provide information and guidance to help you with your references and bibliographies. If you are in any doubt about the style you should adopt, talk to your supervisor for further guidance.

How to reference electronic sources

If anything, you should be more careful in referencing electronic sources than in referencing printed sources because websites can change and libraries do not hold copies. The following advice is based on the recommendations of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Referencing web documents

Author, Editor, Year of Publication (i.e. year when web page was created, if known), Title (in italics or underlined), [Medium – usually 'Online'], Edition, Place of Publication, Publisher (if ascertainable or the organisation responsible for providing and maintaining the information), available URL (in the format: http://internet address/remote path) and the Date Source was Accessed [in square brackets].

Example: British Lawnmower Museum (No date) Lawnmowers of the Rich and Famous [Online] Southport, British Lawnmower Museum. Available: http://www.lawnmowerworld.co.uk/Rich.htm [Accessed 10 March 2004]

NB: If no date is given, write (No date) as shown above.

Referencing electronic journals

Include all the following information in the electronic journal reference, if possible:

Example: Hart, K. (1998) The place of the 1898 Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits (CAETS) in the history of British social anthropology. Science as Culture. [Online] 11 (1). Available: http://human-nature.com/science-as-culture/hart.html [Accessed 9 November 2003]

Referencing journal articles from a web-based full-text database

Include all the following information in the electronic journal reference, if possible: